Hiding Shadows
by NSW
Summary: Formerly The Shifter. Voldemort’s back, there’s an eccentric new DADA teacher and some very interesting returns. Post OotP. Chapter 2 up
1. The First Arrivals

Shadows

by

RunningInCircles

Summary: Voldemort's back, there's an eccentric new DADA teacher and some very interesting returns. Post OotP.

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter, I do own what you don't recognize.

Chapter 1

The First Arrivals

The train arrived at the station, and the weary riders filed off into boats or seemingly horseless carriages. Greetings were called to those missed on the train, and to Hagrid, who was preparing to take the first years up to the castle to be sorted. There was a sense of calm and normalcy that belittled the dangers that summer had very clearly shown. Still, despite the calm, there did seem to be less students than normal piling into the carriages with friends or looking last minute for lost pets and belongings. Three of these students were unusually quiet as they climbed into their ride, one looking sadly at the clearly visible thestrals, as the two friends looked worriedly at him.

"Come on, Harry, get in," Ron said finally, when it seemed the other boy was just going to stand there.

"I'm coming," Harry said after a moment, climbing in beside them.

The semi-filled carriages made their winding way up the road, through Hogwarts's gates and up to the giant front doors. The carriages stopped, and the older students again filed out and swarmed through the doors, chatting happily and looking around for other friends to share quick summer stories with before the Sorting.

"Harry-" Hermione started.

"I don't want to talk about, Hermione, okay?" Harry said before she could finish. She sighed, and Ron looked uneasy again.

"All right," she said reluctantly as they went into the Great Hall for the Sorting and the Welcoming Feast. They took their seats and looked up at the Head Table as the Sorting Hat began to sing, searching out new faces or changes. Hermione was surprised when they found neither, the boys merely groaning upon seeing Snape again.

"I wonder who the new Defense teacher is," Hermione whispered. Two shrugs were the only answer she got as Anderson, Amelia was called up and sorted into Hufflepuff. A surprisingly short time later, Zyth, Yvonne was sorted into Ravenclaw and the much smaller class of first years were seated at their respected House tables.

"There's a lot less first years this year," Ron commented as they waited impatiently for Dumbledore to start his speech so they could eat.

"Yeah," Harry replied.

"I'm glad to see so many eager faces to learn," Dumbledore said cheerfully, standing up, "I have several announcements for you all, but this is the time for eating, not speeching. Tuck in!" With those words, and a very happy grin from Ron, food appeared and the feast began. Ron dug in immediately, invoking a sigh from Hermione before she too began to eat. Harry only picked at the food in front of him, however. Hermione noticed quickly.

"You need to eat something. We know those muggles don't feed you very well," she lectured.

"I'm fine, Hermione, I'm just not very hungry right now." He was less than convincing.

"You barely ate anything on the train, you've to go be hungry by now," she said, putting more food on his plate and watching carefully to make sure he ate it. Deciding it much easier not to argue, he only sighed before starting in. A short time later, after Harry had eaten enough to keep Hermione from nagging him any more, the feast ended and Dumbledore stood up again.

"Now, I'll try to make this as brief as possible so you don't fall asleep on your plates on me," he smiled, "Now, as you might have all ready noticed, our new Defense teacher has not arrived yet., but I assure you she is on her way and will be with us soon. The Forbidden Forest is, as always, forbidden, as hopefully all of your older students will remember. Mr. Filch would also like me to remind you that should you wish to see the list of forbidden items, which has reached an impressive 1,082, is posted on his office door. Lastly, I must ask everyone to stay on your guard this year. With the attacks this summer, it is hopefully apparent that we can never be too careful, though I assure you we are doing all we can to insure your safety. That said, prefects, you may lead the first years to their dorms, and may we all see you bright and early for classes tomorrow."

Taking their cue, Ron and Hermione began to help the fifth and seventh year prefects round up the tired, slightly overwhelmed younger students, and directed them to the currently sealed portrait hole.

"Please be sure to remember the password, and make sure you don't let students from other houses know it. It will change periodically, but the changes will be listed on the bulletin board," Hermione said, ushering them in after giving the Fat Lady the password, currently Fiddlesticks. "Boys dorms are this way, up and down, girls the opposite. It will say First Years on the door," she finished. Slowly, the common room emptied as the stuffed, weary Gryffindors made their way to their belongs along side the soft feather beds, and soon the only ones left were Harry, Ron and Hermione. They looked at each other in silence for a moment, before Hermione reminded them they should go to bed.

"We want to be awake for Potions," she said.

"Of course. We can't miss that," Ron muttered. Harry didn't comment either way, too tired to care.

"Goodnight," she said, giving Ron a Look as she headed up the stairs.

"Night," they replied in unison, going up themselves. After preparing for bed, noting their dorm mates were already out, Ron glanced over at Harry.

"Well… night," he said slowly, getting into bed, but not closing the curtains.

"Night," Harry said absently, laying down too. Ron fell asleep quickly, judging by his snores, but Harry continued to stare at the ceiling. Once he was sure Ron was fast asleep, he crawled down to the end of his bed and looking in his trunk for the Marauder's Map.

"I solemnly swear I am up to no good," he whispered, tapping it with his wand. Instantly, inked lines weaved out across the old parchment, creating the familiar map of Hogwarts. He looked around to see who was still awake. Dumbledore was sitting in his office, as was Snape down in the dungeons. Filch was roaming on the second floor, while Mrs. Norris was stalking around the Great Hall. Suddenly, he spotted an unexpected name heading towards Snape's office.

"What's Professor Lupin doing here?" he wondered softly out loud, then dug in his trunk and pulled out his invisibility cloak. He silently left the tower and slipped off to the dungeons. He reached the dungeons quickly, and caught Remus before he went in.

"Professor? What are you doing here? Are you-" he started, pulling off the cloak.

Remus didn't seem surprised to see him, "No, I'm not going to be teaching you this year," he answered before Harry could finish, "I'm here to get a batch of Wolfsbane Potion from Professor Snape."

"Oh," Harry replied slowly, slightly disappointed.

"I know who is going to be teaching you though, and I think you'll really like her," Remus said, "How have you been doing?"

"All right, I suppose," Harry replied softly. Remus put a hand on his shoulder.

"If you need to talk, I'll be in Hogsmeade most of the year."

"Thanks," Harry said, but a new voice prevented him from saying anymore.

"Moony!" the excited voice cried.

"Oh dear," the werewolf muttered before being rammed into. Harry blinked a couple times as the short twenty year old with pink hair and purple eyes continued to hug his ex-professor.

"Nice to see you too, Shadow," he got out. Bouncing slightly, she turned to see Harry.

"Hi!" she grinned.

"Er… hi?" he said, unsure of what to make of her.

"You're scaring your future student," Remus said dryly.

"Aw, I haven't even done anything yet!" she grinned again.

"I'm Harry Potter," he said slowly, waiting for her reaction. It wasn't the one he expected.

"I know," she said simply, "You got Lil's eyes and James's hair. Poor thing."

"You knew my parents?" he asked, confused. She started to answer when another voice came from behind them.

"What exactly is going on?" Snape asked, surveying the scene.

"Ah, Severus, I was just about to-" Remus stopped as Shadow gave Harry a huge grin and jumped at him.

"SEVIE-POO!" she cried, glomping him.

"Get off me!" he scowled.

"Aww, didn't you miss me?!" she cried. He scowled again. Harry tucked the cloak and map behind his back, and tried not to laugh. He was wondering how she knew his parents when she seemed so young.

"No," he growled. Intervening quickly, Remus asked whether or not the Wolfsbane Potion was done. "Yes," Snape replied grudgingly, giving him a vial of the horrid tasting potion. Remus nodded his thanks and steered Harry and Shadow off down the hallway before the question of why Harry was there came up.

"Well, I'd best go tell Dumbledore I'm here," she said, before turning into a spotted brown owl and flying off.

"She always did prefer flying to walking," he muttered, watching her soar out of sight.

"Is she an animagus?" Harry asked as they left the dungeons. Her changing into an owl didn't look the same as it had when Sirius has switched forms.

"In a matter of speaking," he replied evasively. Harry still looked confused, but Remus didn't offer any further explanation, merely saying it was up to her to explain. "You should head to bed before Filch or Mrs. Norris finds you," he said. Harry nodded and pulled his cloak around him, leaving only his head still visible.

"Why will you be in Hogsmeade?" he asked.

"Order business," he replied, "I'm sure you'll see a lot of us in and out this year." Harry only nodded again and made his way to bed. He had much more to think about now. He fell asleep quickly this time, but morning came too soon, for suddenly Ron was shaking him.

"Harry, come on, we're going to be late!" Harry groaned, but rolled out of bed just the same and stumbled around, getting dressed. Soon they were headed downstairs to meet up with the impatiently waiting Hermione.

"What took you?" she asked, standing up.

"Harry wouldn't wake up," Ron replied. Harry's defense was cut off by a wide yawn, invoking a sheepish look.

"Did you get any sleep?" she asked exasperatedly.

"Yeah," Harry replied, attempting to sound defensive, but failing miserably.

"Dreams or wandering?" she asked.

"Wandering," he sighed.

"Without us?!" Ron cried. Hermione gave him a withering look, accompanied by a sigh. "What?"

"Never mind," she sighed, going in to breakfast.

"I met the new Defense teacher last night," he said suddenly. They both stopped and looked at him.

"You did?" Hermione said, raising an eyebrow.

"What's he like?" Ron asked at the same time.

"She," Harry corrected absently, looking at the head table, "And she's a little…eccentric."

"Trelawny eccentric or Dumbledore eccentric?" Ron asked as they sat down.

"Uh, both, actually," Harry said, and explained what had happened. Both looked at him with wide eyes, though each for different reasons.

"She _hugged _Snape?!" Ron cried, eyes huge at the very thought of anyone willingly getting that close to the greasy Potions Master.

"She turned into an owl? But… she can't be an animagus… well, not a registered one anyway," Hermione muttered, thinking rapidly.

"That doesn't mean much," Harry said, "There used to be three other unregistered animagus running around Hogwarts, remember?" There was silence for a moment, as this was the first time he'd even indirectly mentioned Sirius since they'd seen him last. Hermione was still caught up in her musing however, and Ron elected not to say anything.

"Yes, but…" she didn't bother finishing her sentence, but trailed off into puzzled silence as she thought it over. The two looked at each other and shrugged, neither really wanting to listen to the long, probably complicated, explanation that would follow her latest theory. Ron filled his plate high as McGonagall swept down the table, handing out schedules, then went and sat back at the head table. Ron groaned, looking at his, but before Harry could ask what, the door opened again, and Shadow ran in, robes askew and hair mussed up, before skidding to a stop in front of Dumbledore.

"Sorry…I'm late…" she wheezed, trying to catch her breath, "Overslept." She sank into her chair and adjusted her robes better. Professor Snape sneered at her from down the table, while McGonagall only sighed a bit. After a few minutes, Dumbledore stood up.

"As you can see, our new Defense teacher has finally arrived, I hope you all treat her with the respect she deserves," he said, then turned an looked at her, "If you'd like to introduce yourself."

She swallowed the piece of pancake quickly and stood up and said, "Just call me Shadow." Then she sat back down again, amid the murmurs concerning her strange entrance, appearance, and introduction, not to mention her name. She either didn't notice or didn't care, however, just finished eating.

"Well, if she's late, she can't be that bad then," Ron said admiringly. Hermione didn't look quite as convinced.

"She can't be any worse than Umbridge," Harry said, "Or Lockhart…"

"Or anyone but Lupin," Ron finished.

"I suppose," she said slowly after a moment, "And don't eat so fast, Ron, you'll choke." Ron grumbled something unintelligible under his breath. Harry found it a much better idea to not asked exactly what he had said. Breakfast continued normally, or as normally as it ever did in the castle, until there was only five minutes to go. Shadow appeared to realize this as she glanced at her watch and jumped up with a yelp.

"I need to finish getting ready!" she cried, sprinting out of the room. Several teachers shook their heads, though whether in annoyance or memories, no one could tell. Odd looks from students trailed out behind her. Hermione looked at her schedule.

"I guess we'll be the first to see how she is then. Potions and Defense were switched around this year." Harry and Ron looked at each other, both wondering how it would go. They picked up their bags and filed out.


	2. Classes

Hiding Shadows

by

RunningInCircles

Summary: Voldemort's back, there's an eccentric new DADA teacher and some very interesting returns. Post OotP.

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter, I do own what you don't recognize.

Chapter 2

Classes

When they arrived, they were the first ones there, and consequently the first ones to see the odd sight. Shadow was sitting cross legged on the top of her desk, cheerfully turning the walls bright florescent colors.

"Hi Harry, Ron, Hermione," she called with a grin as they headed for their seats, looking around. Ron and Hermione looked slightly startled at being addressed by name, as they hadn't met her one on one before. She made no move to explain her odd behavior, or even acknowledge that it had been odd behavior.

"Um… Professor?" Hermione started, "What are you doing?"

"Decorating!" she cried, as if it had been perfectly obvious, "This room has always been too boring. And just Shadow, please, professor sounds far too stuffy for my liking."

"Er… all right," Harry said as they took seats and watch as she proceeded to greet the rest of the class by name as they trickled in. They too were startled, but she only grinned at their varied reactions.

"Hi! Nice to see you all made it. Hmm. I suppose I should start by telling you my ground rules…" she said, then paused to think about exactly what those were, "Uh… don't leave class until I tell you, I guess. I don't assign much homework, but if I do, please feel free to do it on time. Don't bother raising your hands before talking, I love a good discussion… Eh, if I think of anything else I'll tell you- Oh! And don't you dare call me Professor. Shadow is fine. Oh! But If anyone can figure out my name by the end of the year, you'll earn a very good prize which will be announced tomorrow, just as soon as I finish it." She shrugged a bit as she looked around, apparently trying to remember what else she was going to say. "We're going to put a lot of focus on dueling, but we'll do other stuff too, promise."

"Like what?" Neville asked. She seem very pleased that someone had asked that.

"Oooh, lots of fun stuff! Curses and hexes and dark potions and detector spells for the paranoid ones among us," she grinned. There were groans.

"Don't we get enough potions in Potions?" Seamus called.

"You all just never learned the joy and chaos that can be potions," she said, with a fake sigh and shake of her head, "It's far too bad Sev- erm, Professor Snape had too many experiences with the more fun types of potions to want to teach them." They had to wonder what sort of experiences she was talking about, but none of them were really inclined to go ask Snape himself.

"So what are we doing today then?" Ron called out, rather liking the 'don't raise your hands' rule.

She grinned, "Well, for starters, we'll talk about dueling." Several groans followed along with the mutters of 'just talk?' She laughed, "Calm down, calm down, we are going to actually duel today too, don't worry. Noooow… can anyone tell me what the first thing you notice about your opponent?"

"Umm…"

"If they're scared or not?"

"How they're holding their wand?"

Shadow grinned, looking around, "You're all getting close."

"Whether they can talk to snakes or not?" Harry gave Seamus a look for that one, even if it had been muttered. Several others frowned a bit, thinking.

"What sort of power he's got?"

"How experience he is?"

"What you're all describing is your first impression of someone. And that can be very important, especially if the first impression is skewed," she grinned, "For example, what did you all think of me? Come on, be honest now, I'm not going to be insulted or anything." No one say anything for a moment. "Oh come on, this is a Gryffindor class, right? I'm giving you a chance to say whatever you want about the new teacher, and none of you want to take it?"

"Er… absent minded?" Harry said slowly.

"Nutters," Seamus called out. Shadow beamed widely at that, only confirming what he had said.

"Five points to Gryffindor for honesty. So, if you were going to duel me, how hard would you think I'd be?" she asked, grinning expectantly at them in a highly unnerving way.

"Not very," Ron said. She beamed again, apparently very pleased with that conclusion. The class looked nervously at each other again.

"I hope I'll change that opinion very fast," she grinned.

"Why don't I like the sound of that?" Dean muttered lowly to Seamus under his breath.

"Because she's nutters?" Seamus muttered back with a shrug. Shadow feigned oblivion; Ron tried not to laugh. Hermione gave them all looks.

"Now, we're going to work on some dueling basics- no groaning, if you don't know the basics, how are you supposed to do the harder stuff? We'll see how you all do with stunning and disarming, then I can figure out where to go from there. Pair up! Last one awake wins!" she called happily, turning a deaf ear to the alarmed muttering that sprung up. Neville ended up across from Harry, but he didn't seem as nervous as he would have been in years past. The DA had had a good effect on him last year, it seemed.

Shadow suddenly offered one more hint as they looked at their partner, "Distractions are wonderful things. Use them well."

"Well, let's get started then," Harry said, after giving her a puzzled looked, and looking around to see the other groups had already begun. Neville attempted to disarm him when both saw a stunner shoot across the room and stun Ron. When Harry looked in the direction it had come from, there was only Shadow there, who didn't seem to notice anything had happened. Instead, she was intently watching Dean and Seamus. Neville and Harry looked at each other and shrugged, before Harry attempted to stun Neville, who ducked just in time. Just at that moment, he saw a stunner shoot out and stun Dean from behind, but when he looked, Shadow's wand was no where in sight, and she was watching Hermione, who was looking rather confused at the stunned Ron. Moments later, Parvati and Lavender fell too, followed closely by Hermione and Seamus. Harry gave Shadow a confused look before he and Neville were stunned too. Shadow stood up and looked at her handiwork, grinning.

"I win!" she said simply, before waking everyone up. Groans of 'what just happened?', 'what hit me?' and 'owww' could be heard as the students picked themselves up off the floor and looked around. Harry gave Shadow suspicious looks as she beamed at them from atop her desk, legs swinging back and forth. She apparently had something against her chair.

"Noooow, what have we learned?" she asked as they settled in their seats for the last minutes of class, watching her warily.

"Falling hurts," Seamus groaned, still rubbing his offended backside.

"Watch out for cheap shots?" Dean offered, trying to find his misplaced wand, then sighed in relief as Seamus handed it to him.

"Don't let the teacher have a wand," Ron said flatly.

"Take out your opponents as soon as you can," Harry said.

"You were all distracted," Shadow said, "And yes, that's right, Harry. Oh, and never play by the rules. I said to pair up, but I also said the last one conscious wins. I never said whether that was between you and your partner, or the entire class."

Ron grinned at Harry, and muttered under his breath, "Like we follow the rules anyway. Harry grinned back.

"But we were dueling our friends," Seamus pointed out, "And it's not like any of us really wanted to do anything to them. It'd be different if we were up against someone we didn't like."

"Five points to Gryffindor for bringing up that very good point," Shadow said, leaning forward a bit on her perch, looking startlingly serious, "Fighting a friend is something you never want to do, under any circumstance." She paused for a moment, "Well, almost any circumstance. But you won't always have the choice, and you need to do what you can to make sure you stay alive." An awkward silence filled the class for a moment, until she brightened again, "But I think you've all gotten the point. Class dismissed!"

"Well that ended on a cheery note," Harry said as they scooped up their belongings. He waited until the class cleared out, and told Ron and Hermione he'd catch up to them.

"Need something, Harry?" she asked without looking up, as he went over to her desk.

"I wanted to ask you about last night when you changed into the owl. Are you an Animagus?" Harry asked.

"Of sorts," she said evasively, "You guys will be learning about it soon enough- that's what we're doing after dueling."

"Oh, okay," Harry said, not any less confused then when he started, "I'd better go, I'll be late to Potions."

"No you won't, follow me," she said, going out the door. Though still a bit confused, Harry followed her. She stood just outside the doorway and tapped on a stone. Immediately a passage way opened up, and she pushed him through before he could ask what it was or how she knew it was there. He stumbled out in the hallway in front of Potions class, and hurried in, sitting down just before the bell rang and Snape swooped in. He barked at them to open their books and get started on the sleeping draught that was on the board. Hermione looked at Neville's nervous look, and partnered up with him. Ron and Harry looked at each other, then got started. After twenty minutes, they realized the potion that was supposed to be white at this point was bright pink.

"It's not supposed to look like that, is it?" Ron whispered, looking nervously at the bubbling potion.

"Nope," Harry said, looking at the book standing nearby.

"Add a little more water," Hermione muttered under her breath, not turning to look at them as she and Neville added the next ingredient. Exchanging glances, the boys added more water, and were relieved when it paled out to white. They bottled the liquid quickly, and took it up to Snape's desk. The Potions Master only glanced at it, and went back to what he was doing. Taking that as a success, they sat back down, and cleaned up their area. Harry pocketed a small vial of the potion while Ron was putting back the extra ingredients. Ron plopped back down and asked how much longer they had in the class. Glancing at his watch, he realized there were still ten minutes left. Hermione and Neville had already finished, with thankfully no major accidents, much to everyone's relief, and the rest of the class seemed to get through with no major problems. Harry stared out the door, waiting for the ten minutes to be up, when he saw a dark shape dart past the door. He looked around, but no one else had been paying attention to the door.

'What was that…' he wondered. The bell rang before he could puzzle it out anymore, or, at very least, figure out if he'd just been seeing things or not, and they grabbed their bags and headed to transfiguration.

Professor McGonagall got started right away on the beginning stages of learning to conjure, something she said would need a lot of practice, but in the end would be a very useful skill. Harry remembered his luck with the vanishing spell, and stifled a groan, knowing already this was going to be difficult. By the end of class, they were all frustrated, and more than ready to go to lunch, having made almost no progress. Hermione had gotten the closest, but this was expected by now, and she was frustrated too, which didn't help everyone else.

Ron dropped his head on the table, "This is going to be a long year if they're starting this hard now."

"Ron, we started the same way last year," Hermione said, reaching for a sandwich.

"Don't remind me," he moaned.

"We're going to have to have Quidditch tryouts soon, if we want to be ready for the first game," Harry realized suddenly. Ron nodded. Most of the team had graduated last year, and they had to do some serious rebuilding. They'd have to work out how they were going to do that soon.

They soon left for Charms, which went by fast, and History of Magic, which went by unbelievably slow. They walked to dinner in silence, still trying to get over the stupor the ghost professor had sent them in. A cat ran by them on their way in, and dashed up to the head table to jump on Professor McGonagall. She eyed it, but allowed it to stay. They looked around to see if Shadow was there, but she apparently hadn't gotten there yet, judging by her empty seat. Dinner went by uneventfully, though Shadow never did turn up.


End file.
